Everything's waiting for you: Downtown Lounge

When I walk down Congress Street late at night, I often peek inside this tiny fun factory. Doesn’t matter if it’s 8 p.m. on a Friday or midnight on a Sunday, there are always people crowded in the diminutive Downtown Lounge. On a Thursday afternoon, my curiosity got the better of me.

It’s a good thing I arrived early. If I came any later, my friends and I would have had nowhere to sit. The lounge is like riding in an early-century dining car. It’s long and thin, with a large bar for people to eat and drink at and small booths smushed against the wall. Even the color scheme of red with black and yellow accents screams vintage.

The lineage of the Downtown Lounge is immediately apparent. Open for about five years, the lounge is owned by Norm Jabar of Norm’s Bar and Grill and East End Grille. This address was the former location of Norm’s Bar and Grill, which moved across the street. With time still on the lease at 606 Congress St., the Downtown Lounge was born.

This nightspot doesn’t try to be anything more than a place for friends to drink, eat, and well, lounge. The food is fresh and each dish is about $10. Caesar Salad and Antipasto highlight the ever-changing menu, which is transmitted on chalkboards because of each dish’s transient nature.

The food smelled great, but we came to drink. The selections are somewhat bipolar. For the everyman, there is a nice, cheap beer menu. The drafts are all $3.50 except for Guinness ($4) and the bottled beers are even less. The crown jewel is the $2 PBR bar bottle, but there is something for every ale and lager swiller here.

Outside of beers, the other drinks are geared towards the upscale crowd. There are lots of wine choices, starting at $5 a glass, but I didn’t see too many people swigging vino. The downtown martinis and special drinks ($7 to $8) seemed more popular, being as they are in the same league as the fancy-pants drinks at Una. The drinks are strong. Or, as our server, Kate Schier, noted, “very efficient.”

So was Schier, who peer-pressured us (in a good way) to keep drinking before we could consider leaving. My buddy covered his bottle with his hands to conceal the dwindling amount of booze in his Pabst. The tactic failed, as he faltered and agreed with Schier it was time for another one.

The crowd is made up equally of West Enders and hipsters (often one in the same). Thursday, Friday and Saturday are the busy nights, though patronage is consistent and I’ve never seen the place empty. The proximity to Geno’s and SPACE makes for lots of pre and post-concert visitors.There also lots of regulars.

“It’s a neighborhood bar,” Schier said. “We know you by name. If we don’t now we will next time.”

Downtown Lounge’s hood is quite competitive. There are so many choices for eats and drinks I would expect business to be cutthroat. Not the case, though.

“I would say we’re lucky enough to be on a block that is community-oriented,” Schier said. “We’re good friends with the owners of Geno’s and White Heart, and everyone goes from one (bar) to the other.”

This friendly vibe makes the Downtown Lounge a good place to sit back and relax. The urban/cosmopolitan environment (not too cosmopolitan, we’re still in Maine, after all) also adds to the appeal of the bar, which offers great people watching by the windows. Even though the menu is constantly changing, as is the neighborhood, the main lure of the lounge is something seemingly less exciting, but refreshing nonetheless.

“Mostly our key to success is consistency and being simple,” Schier explained. “People know what they can get with us.”

Can I get a(nother) PBR bottle, please?